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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27212305">Mystery inc Episode 101</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugarhillwriters/pseuds/Alex%20Cany'>Alex Cany (Sugarhillwriters)</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugarhillwriters/pseuds/Sugarhillwriters'>Sugarhillwriters</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Scooby Doo - All Media Types, Scooby Doo Where Are You! (Cartoon), Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated (Cartoon 2010), Scooby-Doo! (Live-action Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abduction, Clowns, F/F, F/M, Major Original Character(s), Multi, Mystery</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:29:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,547</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27212305</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugarhillwriters/pseuds/Alex%20Cany, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugarhillwriters/pseuds/Sugarhillwriters</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When two girls go missing in Coolsville, tensions grow and the impact affects all, brings together four high school students.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daphne Blake/Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley/Norville "Shaggy" Rogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Mystery inc Episode 101</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mystery Inc<br/>
Episode 101</p><p>Chapter 1</p><p>When Mr. Hannigan’s truck pulled up to the old freight tracks, Gerry pounced out of the door and Libby scooted across the seat until she was standing behind her friend while she talked to her dad.<br/>
“I still think maybe I should come with you girls,” Mr. Hannigan said almost ruefully.<br/>
“Oh, Daddy.”  Gerry said putting her hand on his forearm. She was an athletic and lean girl with curly reddish brown hair, long firm legs tan and exposed to the fall air as she had yet to quit wearing het summer cut-offs. “We’ll be just fine.”<br/>
He nodded and smiled but didn’t make a move to drive off. Gerry started walking up toward the tracks and Libby followed taking the occasional glance back toward Mr. Hannigan.  Not as lean as her friend, she still sported the general chubines of childhood. Her hair was fairly blond as it often was in the summer, curly headed too but without the luster of Gerry’s hair. She was wearing Yoga pants and her Coolsville Middle School T-shirt. After about five minutes of walking she heard the engine come alive and saw Gerry’s Dad turn away and back toward town. They’d done it. They were alone.<br/>
Libby tried to be light and not bother Libby about anything, to just enjoy being with her but it was hard. About a half-mile up the freight tracks she broke to the trail talk to say:<br/>
“I’m glad we’re doing this. I felt like I was losing you.”<br/>
“Why do you have to talk  like that?” Gerry snapped and Libby felt like she’d been struck.  She kept walking, watching her shoes on the track, the mud on top of the sneakers, wondering why she couldn’t get this right. The tracks were surrounded by gravel all around, and the forrest was thick and wild on their left. Libby kept her head down listening to her and Gerry’s footsteps for about a quarter of a mile. They were not in sync, but beating out a rhythm on the rocks.  Suddenly though she realized there was another far off sounding of footsteps. Libby let her breathing go shallow and focused so her ears could tell it was behind her, the slow shuffle added to their beat. She looked up to Gerry who seemed to be having an argument with herself, shaking her head in belief of, no doubt, something Libby had done or said. She looked behind her and could see a man, in a puffy blue coat and light jeans shuffling along on the gravel. His head was down too. A flock Magpie’s got spooked and flew screaming overhead, drawing Libby’s attention away from the man. When she remembered the shuffle-walker and looked back she saw him standing still, eyes cast upward as if the Magpie’s would return. Libby bumped into something and nearly screamed. Gerry had stopped.<br/>
“That guy.” Gerry said. “Is creepy.”  She pulled out her phone and swiped the camera on.<br/>
“What are you doing?” Libby wanted to push her hand down but didn’t dare. Instead she turned around to see the shuffle walker was heading toward them. The shutter sound on Gerry’s phone clicked and he raised his head. Libby couldn’t see much of him, save for his shabby closed and unamused grimace on his face.<br/>
“Come on.” She grabbed Gerry’s arm and pulled her sweatshirt sleeve so the two of them began to walk through the gravel again, footsteps now nearly in unison.<br/>
The shuffling kept up behind them, but it was no faster from what Libby could tell. She was going to tell Gerry they should speed up, when the man yelled out to them in a voice as gravelly as the path they were veering off of. “Girls. Girls.”<br/>
They both turned their heads around to the man ambling toward them,hand in the air.  But instead of speeding up they both slowed down. For Libby, it was his voice. It sounded old.  He was probably older than her Grandpa. Libby felt her stomach relax and she felt Gerry’s muscles unflex as if the tension her friend felt had eased just as hers had. They stopped walking completely and turned around to face the old hooded man.<br/>
“Girls.”  He seemed out of breath and smelled faintly of  beer and earth, a farmer most likely.<br/>
“Girls.”<br/>
Libby didn’t want to talk to him.She looked to Gerry who had a big smile on her face. Libby let a smile rise on her face and a giggle out her mouth like a hiccup then they were running holding hands while the forest, the trees were a blur on either side of them and the old man was just a voice in the distance, asking them some question then she could hear him yelling. “NO.” Yelling it really loudly like his throat would tear. Libby was laughing so hard she was crying and she felt fear and excitement mixing with her bacon egg and OJ breakfast in her stomach. She felt if she didn’t stop soon she would fall or throw up.<br/>
They finally stopped and fell into some overgrowth beneath a tree laughing and panting.<br/>
Libby sat up and pulled her hair from her open mouth. Gerry stood up and put her hands on her knees, letting her laughter subside, then took a cursory look around. Her eyes went serious and that light look of laughter was out of her face.  Libby was suddenly very afraid, thinking the old man had someone caught up with them.<br/>
“What is it?” Libby asked looking around.<br/>
“Nothing. I think we lost the trail though.” Gerry said seriously.<br/>
Gerry reached out both her hands, helping Libby stand up. The two of them scanned the forest.Their phones weren’t much use in the forest they knew from experience how poor mobile service got outside of Coolsville proper. They knew which direction they had come from. If they reversed it they would make it back to the trail but they didn’t want to for fear of running into the old man.<br/>
They heard something like a duck call coming from the south. It was an odd noise, definitely not, natural.<br/>
“Well someone is that way, maybe that’s where the trail picks back up,”  Gerry reasoned.  Either way they figured, the afternoon would be here soon and there would be so many hikers on and off the trail they wouldn’t have to worry about the creepy old man, so they decided to head slowly south.<br/>
It was turning out to be a better day than Libby had expected. After about fifteen minutes of talking about just about everything the girls could come up with, Libby had reached over and took a delicate and tentative hold of Gerry’s hand and Gerry and Gerry didn’t pull away. Gerry let her fingers interlace with Libby’s fingers and gave them a warm squeeze so Libby felt that a calm sense of belonging there with Gerry beneath the sun shining through the leaves overhead.  She smiled and looked over to her friend whose moist pink lips were still going on and just in the distance, between the parting of her lips for a second she saw something that didn’t go with the brown earthen forest. Something odd and out of place. She whipped her head back when they had passed it but she couldn’t place what it was. She blocked out Gerry’s chatter to try and remember. She knew it was white. A white face. Not like a person’s though, not like pink flesh colored it was chalk white and had raccoon black eyes. Was it? Was it some kind of racoon.  No. Maybe some kind of strange monkey.<br/>
“Why so quiet, Lib?” Gerry woke her from her wondering.<br/>
“What? Oh no? I just thought I saw, I mean I think it was…” And it was strange, while talking she could place what it was, or maybe it was helping her to admit what it was she saw.  She turned to look behind her, Gerry did too and the two froze their steps to just look.<br/>
Beneath the bows of a great big tree, where there was the tease of a warm but not overwhelming afternoon sun shining onto the path, was a clown in a white and black outfit, white face cast toward the sky.<br/>
“What the…” Gerry began, but then the clown's face snapped from skyward toward them. He had his makeup done so his elongated black lips were pulled down into a frown on his white face. He began to walk toward them. The two girls were transfixed for a moment. Libby was the first to break the silence.<br/>
“I think we should go.” She touched Gerry’s arm. Something happened to Gerry when Libby touched her. She went ape, screaming at the approaching clown that this was a stupid joke and all the things she would do to him if he got near. Libby was still holding her arm. She was unsure of what to do with her red-faced friend. Off to the left beneath some trees something moved. It was, she was quickly sure, another clown. So he had a friend too. She got in front of Gerry which meant having the clown behind her. She caught her friends wild eyes long enough to say and really get across:<br/>
“Let’s go!”<br/>
She saw in Gerry’s eyes the fear heard the fast footsteps, the clown was running behind her. Libby took off dragging Gerry behind her until Gerry caught her stride and began running with her. Libby wanted to scream but her lungs needed all the air to pump her legs. Gerry was ahead of her now, about the distance between their homerooms. The length of Twelve lockers ahead of her she was running, without so much as a look back to see if Libby was still with her.<br/>
Libby wanted to cry. Tears flowed but she wanted to sobb too. She saw up ahead of her that there was a clown  in a dress about six lockers ahead of Gerry.Libby caught her breath enough to yell:<br/>
“Gerrrrrrryyyyyyy!!!”<br/>
Gerry slowed enough to stop right before she got to the clown who had a long knife, which she swung at Gerry. Gerry looked liked she dodged it and without speaking, the two of them both ran East, off the path and into the thick of the trees<br/>
.  “What the fuck is going on?” Gerry said as she and Libby ran toward one another, still heading East but needing to close the distance between them.<br/>
“I don’t know,” Libby said all in tears and out of breath trying to keep up with Gerry. She just couldn’t. Her body was giving up. She felt like she would faint or urinate on herself or both.<br/>
“Gerry,” she cried, slowing to a stop.<br/>
She bent down and threw up. Gerry turned and came back to her. Looking around with her eyes wild and wide open.<br/>
“Where the fuck are they?”<br/>
Libby coughed.<br/>
“Shhhh. Shut up, Libs.”  Gerry insisted. Libby stood up and joined her friend in looking all around them for any color that wouldn’t fit with the forest scene, a non earth-tone. A white face. A rainbow wig. Libby felt so strange like they were nowhere and everywhere.      “Lock arms with me,” Gerry said. She put the crook of her right arm into Libby’s.  So that both of them were facing different directions.<br/>
“Start walking Libs. If you see one scream the direction.” So they began walking arm in arm. Libby going forward Gerry walking backwards. Libby’s eyes seemed to see movement everywhere. Everything seemed to be moving and trying to get her. They walked for about ten minutes before Gerry said.<br/>
“Do you hear that, Libby?”<br/>
“No. Hear what?” Libby cried.<br/>
“The River. I think we’re almost to the river.”<br/>
Libby listened carefully and now that it had been pointed out to her she could in fact hear the sound of moving water.<br/>
“Gerry, wait,” Libby said as Gerry began springing top speed toward the water. She was so excited it was too late before she saw what Libby saw, the clown in oversized overalls with a large scythe.</p><p>Chapter 2</p><p>    The alarm on Norville’s (Shaggy’s) android began sounding. Shaggy, sat up at the foot of the bed where he had been sleeping as most of his bed had been taken over by his best friend, a large Greyhound named Scobby-Doo. A gift from his father When he’d turned 15. He couldn’t tell how old Scooby was. Vet’s estimate put him at about 3 or 4. Although only 17, Shaggy sported a full beard. He pulled on his black faded skinny jeans and opened the door for Scooby to go thundering out into the kitchen. Shaggy’s mother, not even looking up from her coffee opened the door so the dog could go relieve himself then closed it when scooby ran back in top speed and attacked his big bowl of kibble.<br/>
Peggy Rogers was a youngish mom, having had Norville when she was still in High school. She sported a Slipknot T-shirt and her arms were the beginning gallery of an exhibition of tattoos that showcased different phases of her life. Shaggy walked over and kissed her cheek.<br/>
“You have lunch money?”<br/>
“Yeah,” Shaggy said faintly as the television in the living room of their small single family tract house was drawing his attention.<br/>
“Authorities say foul play has not been ruled out. If you are just joining us, two girls from the area whose names have not been released at this time have disappeared in the Tom’s Ridge area…”<br/>
Scooby’s bark woke Shaggy so he walked over and got bacon from the counter, eating one slice and throwing the other to his best friend.<br/>
“You know that vegan bacon ain’t cheap, Shag.”<br/>
“D’ya hear about these girls?” He asked his mother.<br/>
“Yeah.” Peggy nodded her head. Monsters everywhere.”<br/>
*<br/>
Velma Dinkley, amply-bodied not unlike an older Gerry walked toward Coolsville high listening to Ambient chill. An alert on her phone made her stop. Looking down she saw it was a news report and surprisingly it was about Coolsville. Nothing ever happened in Coolsville aside from the occasional overturned tractor. She was reading about the two missing girls when someone bumped into her nearly making her drop her phone but before she could even react she felt a large hand grab a good portion of her black-legging clad left buttcheck. She whirled around ready to rage but before she could say anything Daphne struck him hard across his face. Before the kid, who she thought was likely a freshman, could react she’d kneed him in the ribs, twisted his arm around so he yelled in pain then grabbed his testicles roughy from beneath and tossed him into the grass where the skateboarders hung. Their cheers and laughs helping Velma release the anger she was feeling.<br/>
“Thanks,” Velma said to Daphne Blake, a junior like her with reddish brown hair, wearing a short flowy purple skirt and patterned top underneath a green jacket, all designer, but not showy, just quality clothing. “My ass saved by Coolsville High’s resident Black Belt.”<br/>
Daphne with her eyes fixed on Velma kicked behind her reflooring the boy trying to recover from his earlier punishment. “Tell your ass it’s welcome.”<br/>
The two friends began walking together toward the front door of Coolsville High, a building that might have been modern 30 years ago, but now looked like a robot toy that sat in the attic for years after a rough period of play.<br/>
“Why am I a magnet for creeps?” Velma asked with a hint of sadness beneath her usual amusement.<br/>
“Every girl is,” Daphne replied.<br/>
“I’m serious. I get groped or called a lewd name at least once every other day.”<br/>
“I’m being serious too, Daph. Colsville has not quite lived up to its name and is caught somewhere between the qausi-hip-90s and the cro-magnon days. As for your particular draw, I’ve told you, your undefined sexuality, full curves, and sex-positive blog which is up to about 2,000 subscribers…”<br/>
“5k. But, who’s counting?” Velma half kidded.<br/>
“5K drooling adolescent boys, old pervs and bicurious females focusing their darkest desires on you.”<br/>
“I don’t do it for the attention, like most girls. For me it’s a curiosity about the changing standards of beauty and the reactions for a girl as far from Hollywood proportions as I am, being confident. It’s like a social experiment.”<br/>
“And you like when people,” Daphne said smiling, “especially girls, comment on your ass.”<br/>
“Well yeah. But not inviting anyone to touch it.” Velma said holding the door open for her fashion forward friend.<br/>
“Speaking of victimized females,” Daphne said, flipping the door to the person behind her, “ Did you hear about those two middle-schoolers?”<br/>
“Yeah,” said Velma. “I have a few suspect theories.”<br/>
“You’re fast, Veronica Mars. Like who?” Just as Daphne spoke those words a loud sound of a car backfiring from the parking loud sounded. They turned to look over the heads of students entering the school to see Shaggy’s green van pull up.<br/>
“Perfect timing,” Daphne said.<br/>
“No. Not Norville, kidnapper van aside, the guy is harmless.” She said with an affection in her tone which Daphne made sure to capitalize on.<br/>
“Didn’t you make that van rock once or twice?”<br/>
“Are you slut shaming me, Ms. Blake?” Velma joked, resuming her walk to class. The school bell rang and they ran into their first class. AP Language and composition.<br/>
Ms. Grimmwood, a big-hipped midwestern middle-aged woman, with graying brown hair but a pretty voice that made Daphne’s dad show up to teacher conferences for once, was lecutring on the indication of homosexuality in Shakespeare’s plays when the door opened and in walked a tall muscular light brown boy with his curly hair dyed blond, wearing black joggers and a white and blue unzipped hoodie over his tight white tee shirt. Velma and Daphne immediately caught one another’s eyes from their respective seats across the room from one another and made a cryptic hand gesture only they understood. Daphne laughed into her arms, head down on her desk, while Velma smiled and checked out the boy that was making all the girls in the class quit their slouch and sit up, back arching, tits forward. Yeah. He was hot. It was rare that Velma felt immediately attracted to a boy and when she was it more the dark ones like Shaggy. This golden boy looked like he could be on that CW show about the teen Dracula, Young Vlad, that likely had Bram Stoker ready to come back Zombie style.<br/>
“Hi, Miss, um Grimwood. I’m Freddie Jones, transfer. He said handing her a slip of paper.”<br/>
“Welcome,” Miss Grimwood said, too practiced as a professional woman who worked around teens to let on that the kid was beautiful, Daphne thought. “Find a seat, we’ll spare you the scrutiny of a full class introduction.”<br/>
“Thanks,” he smiled. Grimwood went on with her lecture while all the girls tried to get Freddie to look their way and all the boys readied themselves for the initiation of bullying, their system of tribal vetting, testing Freddie’s manhood. </p><p>*<br/>
Freddie Jones had a rough morning.<br/>
4:00 Am. Woke anxious and jetlagged from switching time Zones. Spent the next three hours vaping and watching youtube clips until the sun was up.<br/>
7:00 AM. Worked on core and chest, 150 crunches, three 2 minutes of holding plank position, 21 iso-explosive push ups split into three sets of 7.<br/>
7:30 AM Had a whey protein shake in the unfurnished, box cluttered kitchen while his mother tried to find her coffee pot. Read an article in the local paper, the Coolsville Herald about how two girls had gone missing on a hiking trail. Listened to the helicopters overhead and told mom “So much for moving somewhere safe.”<br/>
Mom didn’t think it was funny.<br/>
7:45 got into his Camaro ZL1 and tried to haul ass to school. The streets, all called something like Apple Lane or Thorn hill or Thorn Drive and Apple Road, confused the hell out of him and his phone's GPS So he was almost late.<br/>
7:59 turning into the parking lot he was cut off by a ridiculous beardo kid in a shitty green van that had definitely seen better days. The kid flipped him off and took his parking space so Freddie had to circle before giving it up and parking on Windmill Road, or Windmill Drive. He hoped he’d be able to find it later.<br/>
8:15 got to the office with the help of a tall chick who must’ve been late because she was perfecting her smokey eyed look. Nice enough, her name was Jackie.<br/>
8:35 was finally freed from the office after 10 minutes of paperwork and a 5 minute motivational speech by the principal. Now, he was finally getting a chance to catch his breath. He sat in an empty seat behind a cute redhead with a nice shape.<br/>
He leaned forward “What are we reading?” he whispered, careful not to touch her, as she didn’t seem like the kind of girl interested in unwanted contact. She passed the book back to him.<br/>
“The Shakespeare Reader.” He opened the cover. Her name was written in neat purple print. “Daphne Blake.”</p><p>*<br/>
In a room that smelled of concrete dust and decay, mold that crept up the walls. There was a large metal door that let in the littlest bit of light through the crack along where it met the wall. No way to tell it was still early afternoon for the girl with the neck cuff so tight it was cutting into the skin of her throat. A length of chain, cold and heavy ran down her back, tethering her to a metal post she could feel if she ran her hand up the chain. It was too strong to give, not even an inch. There was a bucket, she had figured out was to hold her urine and feces. She thought about her health class briefly. Thoughts like that were pain. They were too normal. Immediately she’d be snatched back to this cold dark reality with the noises in the darkness, clanging of metal. Perhaps her friend chained to a post in a similar dungeon. She kept screaming her friends name until her throat was too hoarse to do more than whisper it through the crack. But her friend had yet to answer.</p><p>Chapter 3</p><p>    “That new guy is hawwwtttt,” Velma sang into Daphne’s ear,” while simultaneously setting down her Sistema lunch container and cold Shasta Cola from the vending machine.<br/>
“He’s okay,” Daphne volunteered.<br/>
“Oh come on,” Miss Blake. “He is a few degrees past okay. I nearly had to run to the bathroom when he came into the class.” A few students sitting at the long lunch table turned to look at Velma.<br/>
“Mind your business you perverts!”  Daphne commanded and to her friend said: “Simmer down, Amber Rose, before you give these bible thumping farmgirls nightmares.”<br/>
“Please,” Velma said. “These girls are the biggest hoes in the school, they just do a better job of hiding it.” Some of the students got up and left the table while the two friends laughed at their success.<br/>
Suddenly an uproar and Daphne lifted her bookbag ready to protect herself from the semi-weekly food fight someone always started just for some excitement. Instead Velma pointed to where a shoving match was occurring. It quickly evolved into a wrestling and slug match.<br/>
As kids rushed to crowd around the area where it was Daphne asked:<br/>
“Who is that?”<br/>
“It’s the new boy.” Velma said, sounding surprised to Daphne like she couldn’t believe a guy that attractive was capable of violence.<br/>
“Who’s he fighting?” Daphne asked, unable to see at all with the kids standing on lunch tables cheering.<br/>
“You’ll never believe it.”</p><p>*</p><p>This guy was fast and strong, but he lacked the reach and training Shaggy had. Once their arms were tangled in a lock, Shaggy drove his head up into the kid’s chest. He wrapped his leg around the knee standing up so the kid was on one foot. He took him down to the lunch room floor, then he had him in a half nelson. He tried to slow his heart but it was no good. This was why he’d gotten kicked off the wrestling team. It was happening. He felt that killer instinct, the blood growing hotter in his chest while his beard began to expand.<br/>
“Shag, Shag, look at me.” There was suddenly a kind voice speaking among the red vision, the animal-like chanting of the faces in the crowd. It was a round feminine face with big brown eyes behind glasses, full pink lips, dimpled chin. She was holding his face stroking his chin.<br/>
“You have to let him go,” Velma said.<br/>
“Velma,” he said and it was enough time, enough calm for security to pull him off the kid who fell to the floor limp.</p><p>Chapter 4</p><p>“You okay now, Shag?” Velma was on her vintage cherry red cruiser complete with tassels and basket. She and the bike were together so much it was often odd to see her walking.<br/>
“I’m good Velma, You want a ride?” Normally she would say no, but she had a long stretch of road between town center and her Dad’s house that she normally considered serene, but now knowing that two girls not much younger than her had disappeared in this sleepy burg where everyone knew one another was indeed frightening. When Shaggy opened the back doors of his van to load her bike in, Scooby, Shaggy’s best friend, and near only friend aside from her jumped onto Velma with pet kisses and happy tail wagging barks.<br/>
“Hey, Scoob,” she said laughing at his intense admiration of her, or more likely how comfortable Shag was with her around. Everyone knew he kept the dog in the car all day, he spent most lunches sitting on the van’s back fender feeding the dog from his aluminum lunch box. He was quite the loner, but one of the nicest boys Velma had ever known.<br/>
Shaggy had his LG plugged into the van’s archaic stereo system. He was streaming the local news channel KCXA. Ken Wynter, the local news man was droning on about Saturdays High School Football game, Coolsville Versus Shermer. Shaggy turned to another news station.<br/>
“You hear about those girls?<br/>
A shudder ran through Velma’s body. “Of course, biggest news to hit Coolsville since they added a strip mall.”<br/>
“You think I did it?” Shaggy asked. Velma was too shocked to speak. The thought had never ever crossed her mind.<br/>
“No,” she spoke over-emphatically. It sounded screechy, but there was real sincerity beneath it. “Shag why would you ask that?”<br/>
“Because I’m Coolsville’s local weirdo.”<br/>
“What’d I tell you about that?”<br/>
“And the other thing, you know.”<br/>
Velma inhaled audibly. “Shag, I know you. You wouldn’t do anything like that?”<br/>
“Maybe not…. consciously.”<br/>
“Not at all. Let’s drop it.” She insisted and snatched up his phone to play some Dream-Pop which went well with the 70s van.<br/>
An hour later she rolled over in her queen sized bed and lay her nude body on Shaggy, tracing his thin ribs beneath the hairy torso. He offered her his THC vape. She took a toke.<br/>
“What happened with you and the new kid today?” She said looking into his endearing eyes, deep brown that would glow bright in the moonlight. She listened to the typical boy story about cars and aggression. It would be totally boring for her, if it weren’t for likely the two most attractive guys at Coolsville High wrestling all primal.<br/>
“Well next time, you feel the need to get your aggression out save it for me.” She purred. He smiled and kissed her.<br/>
“I thought you don’t do exclusive.”<br/>
“I don’t, but there is just something about you Shag that makes me invite you back.”<br/>
“Maybe,” he blew out vapor, “because your pet name for me, a derivation of my nickname, is a synonym for fucking in some parts of the world.”<br/>
“Maybe,” she began kissing his chest. Unfortunately she heard the pebbles scattering around tires which could only mean her dad was home.<br/>
“Shit,” she said. Shag knew the deal. He had his jeans on in no time and was soon hanging shirtless out her window. He hit the ground as silently as he could and shushed Scoob who was tail wagging and ready to start whining.<br/>
Velma looked out the window to see if he’d look back up for her. He made it all of three feet and looked up. She blew an exaggerated kiss which he caught awkwardly, timidly, her man she loved in a lot of ways, Shaggy Rogers.</p><p>*<br/>
Most songs are about love, Shaggy thought. And, a good deal of them are about unrequited love. He’d given up on news about the girls for the day,setting his phone’s browser to alert him if anything should change. He was heading back to his side of town, along the Coolsville Casino, he wondered as he always did at how the town was divided by this church of desperation and addiction  where his mother worked as a waitress in a skimpy skirt serving drinks to losers who were betting their family’s mortgage on a game they couldn’t really win. He lived on the other side in a house that was home enough for him, but he wished he had somewhere he felt he could bring Velma to. She might even love him if he lived in a house as nice as hers. He became immediately aware of his self-deprecating thoughts not by self-awareness or enlightenment but by something quite jarring. He was passing through the warehouse district where Greenway’s storage facility was when he saw a clown. As soon as he’d seen it it was gone like it disappeared into the shadows.<br/>
“You see that scoob?”<br/>
“No. What was it?” Scooby growled. Shaggy shared this psychic connection to most canines, with the exception of rat-terriers for some reason.<br/>
“Look out!” Scooby yelled and Shaggy slammed the breaks. Just as a clown in a yellow jumpsuit ran in front of his car.<br/>
“Fuck is the circus in town?” He asked.<br/>
“Let’s chase ‘em.”<br/>
“Nah, Scoob.” Let’s go home, he said. He felt something odd about it. He didn’t consciously put it together, the missing girls and the appearance of the clowns, but he felt the eeriness all the same.<br/>
*</p><p>Shag<br/>
I just saw the creepiest fuckin thing!</p><p>What?!?<br/>
I was driving home and I saw a clown.</p><p>mmm Kay…<br/>
Maybe 2</p><p>Am I missing something?</p><p>They were just in the middle of nowhere. by the Marina just… hiding out.</p><p>That does sound scary. Did they have red balloons and hid in the sewer?</p><p>LOL. No but they were creepy AF. </p><p>Aww poor shag. I’ll take care of em for ya babe.</p><p>ThX. Youre the coolest.</p><p>IK</p><p> </p><p>Daphne</p><p>Death Comes for the Arhcbishop.<br/>
Oh</p><p>What were you saying about the blog?</p><p>I think it should be revamped.<br/>
How so?<br/>
It has always had a feminist slant<br/>
eah<br/>
Yeah<br/>
I want it to tackle more heavy subjects<br/>
Like these missing grls<br/>
Okay<br/>
Violence against women is just so normalized these days<br/>
Yeah<br/>
Look at what happened to me today</p><p>Im sorry V</p><p>It’s not that far between that sort of objectification, unwanted touchin and murder</p><p>You think those girls are dead?</p><p>I don’t know. I hope not but you know the statistics.</p><p>Yeah</p><p>So I want to do something about it.</p><p>Blog</p><p>Not just blog. I want to get out there. Shake the trees. </p><p>I’m with u<br/>
Really?!?!</p><p>Duh. Of course. YOu know I’m in.</p><p>*<br/>
Daphne put her phone down on the counter to find her debit card and pay for her Pumpkin spice Latte.<br/>
“I got it,” a male voice said. She picked her head up in time to see the new guy, Freddie slide a twenty dollar bill across the counter which the young barista in her meant to be Parisian uniform snatched up quickly while trying to lock eyes with Freddie.<br/>
“Whoa, whoa. I got it,” Daphne tried but the girl was already ringing it up.<br/>
“I’ll pay you back. I think I have a five in here somewhere,” Daphne said.<br/>
“It’s okay,” Freddie said flashing a smile that shone like gold at her. She felt even less okay with him paying for her drink.<br/>
“I’m not going to jump you because you bought me a caffeinated beverage.”<br/>
“Oh,” Freddie said like he was shocked and Daphne wanted to push the words back into whatever pit inside her they’d come from. “Did you want decaf?” He joked and she caught the corners of her mouth as they tried to smile and pushed them back into something like neutral.<br/>
“Come on,” he said nibbling a cookie from the counter. “Cookie too,”he said to the barista and to Daphne: “It’s just a coffee. Take pity on the new kid. Already got my ass kicked once today.”</p>
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